


let your hearts be light

by batterytriplicate



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Christmas 2016, F/M, Happy Holidays Everyone!, Multi, The ending is sloppy but ya know what it works
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 07:02:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9061357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/batterytriplicate/pseuds/batterytriplicate
Summary: It started with a combination of a joke and an old argument—well, more of a reoccurring bickering session.or: Rory, Amy, and the Doctor do Christmas.





	

It started with a combination of a joke and an old argument—well, more of a reoccurring bickering session.

Whenever he or Amy mentioned the time within the TARDIS—to mention "good morning" or "good night" to each other, the Doctor would start grumbling about the fact that time didn't really  _exist_ in the TARDIS, and who were they to say that it was morning? And then Amy would volley back with that it was morning  _somewhere,_ wasn't it, and then the Doctor would devolve into some sort of incredibly scientific argument.

One day, Amy was heaving a pine tree into the console room, and looked around analytically, before she asked Rory, "Where d'you think would be best for it?"

The Doctor popped up from underneath the glass floor. "Just  _what_ do you think you're doing?"

"I've been counting days," Amy said. "It's around the time we'd start decorating for Christmas at home. We're decorating for Christmas now."

Rory hummed thoughtfully, before pointing at the little bare space next to the coat rack, just next to the door. "There, I'd think."

"Well, it's your turn for the physical labor," Amy said decisively, and Rory rolled his eyes good-naturedly as he shouldered at the pine, stepping carefully down the stairs.

"Now—wait just a  _second—!"_

"Oh, just let us have our fun, Raggedy Man," Amy declared, slinging her arm across his shoulders as Rory attempted to settle the tree in some way. They didn't have a holder, so he mostly just tried to lean it against a wall. "There's plenty of good things about Christmas, you'll love it!"

"Eggnog's a bit like custard, you'd probably like it," Rory called back. "And there's all sorts of presents and everything—and we can get that peppermint coffee creamer—"

Rory drank more coffee during December than any other time of year because of that peppermint flavoring. He could drink three cups of peppermint-flavored anything.

"Ohh, and you'd love being Santa Claus," Amy laughed, and the Doctor said indignantly, "Who said I'm not? Rory, Marvel Super Heroes Collector Pack, Roman map wrapping paper."

Rory's head snapped over to them. "What?" He said, incredulous, but the Doctor was already plowing on, gesticulating wildly.

"It's one of your silly little human traditions, that's all. Mostly because of the solstice, changed because it was easy to disguise celebrations under something that was already there, and besides, the whole point of it is to just buy each other things because it's a specific day and your society keeps telling you to, year after year, and you do!"

"Okay, but consider this," Amy said, withdrawing a scrap of fabric from her pocket with a flourish, and Rory quickly saw that it was a bowtie, and the Doctor's ears practically perked up, but he worked to keep looking sulky.

"What's that?" He said, trying not to look interested and failing miserably.

Amy waggled the bowtie in front of him. "It's a bowtie. A brand-new one. Call it an early Christmas present." 

The Doctor reached out and snatched it from her hands, before snorting at it, then quickly schooling his expression into something stern.

It took him a week to put it on, and then it seemed that a switch had been flipped; where the tree had been haphazardly leaning against the wall one night, it was standing on something that made it hover, floating gently up and down, bedazzled in a hodgepodge of ornaments, from traditional baubles to little snowglobes of alien civilizations. Garland was strung across every available railing, including down the Doctor's swing under the console, and strings of paper snowflakes glittering were swaying gently from the ceiling. 

"Ho Ho Ho!" The Doctor cried delightedly, and the Ponds turned, both in their pajamas, and Rory had to press his lips together to keep from laughing, Amy smothering it with her hand.

The Doctor had, once again, forsaken his regular tweed, instead opting for the traditional Santa jacket and pants over his usual collared shirt, Amy's bowtie gleaming from his throat. He was holding a tray, and Rory's mouth watered.

"Are those," he began, and the Doctor eagerly lifted it. 

"Peppermint coffee! And a bit of eggnog. I quite like eggnog, I think. And Jammie Dodgers!"

Rory and Amy exchanged a look.

"Um, not that we're complaining," Amy said carefully, and passed Rory one of the mugs, "but you were... a bit of a Grinch a week ago. What changed?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I like humans," he said, plainly. "I haven't had an actual Christmas in a while. Besides, all the lights are pretty, aren't they?"

Rory was currently chugging down the mug of peppermint-flavored coffee—was this a mocha? He didn't know but he loved it—and Amy said, "Well, yes, of course they are, but—"

"Christmas shopping!" He declared enthusiastically, and that just about stopped Amy's qualms in her tracks.

Within the next week, it seemed like everything they did was Christmas related. There was Christmas shopping, and a tour through a Christmas tree farm, and snowman building, except the snowmen turned out to be a bit murderous and awful, and then there was an incident with Christmas lights that ended up with the Doctor tripping down a flight of stairs, and then the Doctor managed to bring a reindeer on the TARDIS which was really mostly Rory waking up, walking into the hall, and being stared down by a reindeer, before closing the door behind him and telling Amy not to go out into the hall.

Each and every day, he wore the bowtie Amy got him, and by the end of the week, Rory and Amy were just a bit Christmass-ed out. 

"Why'd'you think he likes this so much?" Amy asked, head pillowed on his chest as they rested together in bed, her fingers tracing patterns over his stomach. 

Rory shrugged, pressing a kiss to her hair. "Probably some sort of  _observe the humans_ policy or something. Maybe he saw that we weren't giving it up and threw himself into it. Maybe, he just tasted peppermint coffee and figured that the rest of it must be as amazing—"

Amy snorted, knocking him lightly with her hand. "Seriously. You think he's just doing it because?"

"Well, why do you think he's doing it, then?" Rory asked, and Amy stilled.

"I think he's trying to make us happy," Amy murmured, and Rory pressed his smile into her hair.

"Could be it," he murmured. "Dunno. You could ask him."

Amy hummed, and murmured, "Let's get to sleep, all right? He might make us actually go help the Whovilles get Christmas back."

Rory laughed, and switched off their lamp.

It was the day they'd dubbed their Christmas Eve. Amy had fallen asleep in his lap after they watched  _A Christmas Carol._  

The Doctor poked his head in, and said, "Er—oh. Didn't realize she was asleep."

Rory shrugged, and gestured him over. "C'mon,  _It's a Wonderful Life_ is about to start. Amy always gets bored, but I like it."

The Doctor carefully lowered himself down on the couch, and Rory watched comfortably and mostly in silence until George saved his brother from drowning.

"So," the Doctor said, "I've never really asked. What's your favorite part of... all of this? Why do humans get so excited about this?"

Rory paused, and said, at last, "There's a certain... warm feeling to all of this, you know? Giving gifts you know people will like is always a plus. And it's a time for family, and friends, and everyone to get all together. There's a lot of tradition, too. Silly things, not just the whole gift-giving bit. We always make a massive breakfast every Christmas morning—eggs, and bacon, and pancakes, and the like. I know that Amy's family always gives her an ornament for every year—depending on thing's she's done, you know? A little pencil for the year she started school, a white dress, for when we got married. It's just... this feeling you get, around this time of year. Like nobody can do anything wrong today. Because it's Christmas."

The Doctor nodded, before he said at last, "Aren't we supposed to set out cookies?"

"You're just angling to get more Jammie Dodgers,  _Santa Claus._ "

* * *

Rory awoke to a massive breakfast, filled with nearly every breakfast food he'd heard of and a few he hadn't, and drank enough peppermint coffee to make his hands shake, and enough food that made him want to go back to sleep, but Amy and Rory both dragged him into the console room, squealing excitedly over the presents all under the tree.

They'd been used to the explosion of Christmas decorations around the console room, but the Doctor had added on.

The original tree, the one that floated, was more central in the floor region. Other, smaller trees, more nicely decorated and in a variety of colors, dotted the upper levels of the console room, with something like snow covering the glass floor. The original tree had presents piled underneath it, including the ones that they'd already bought for each other. There were five stockings on the central console unit—two red, two green, and one in TARDIS blue. 

Amy cooed eagerly over the emerald-looking bracelet he'd gotten her, and laughed until she was nearly sick at the dancing hat that the Doctor had given her. Rory, long-suffering in a dancing hat of his own (it played  _Christmas carols_ ) and inspecting the nursing kit that Amy had given him, the one he'd been eyeing as they'd done all their Christmas shopping. The Doctor attempted to try on all of the bowties both the Ponds had gotten him, and ended up nearly strangling himself before Rory strictly enforced a one-at-a-time bowtie policy.

The morning was spent lazily inspecting their other gifts—clothes, gift cards to shops both on and off Earth, the occasional practical gift and the more-than-occasional gag gift, and ate enough Christmas candy and cookies to push their lunch off to what felt like mid-afternoon.

They settled in for lunch on Christmas, which was just pasta and garlic bread and caesar salad, before the Doctor stood at the end of the meal and said, "Follow me, I've got something to show you two."

Amy and Rory exchanged a glance, before they both got to their feet and faithfully followed after.

He ended up leading them into the console room, where they both paused.

There was someone in a long fur coat lounging resplendently in the console chair, too, beaming and holding a bottle of wine.

"Hello, sweetie," River told Amy warmly, and enveloped her in a hug, before offering the same treatment to Rory.

They retired to a room with a fireplace, which was very much like what Rory expected a rich person's cabin to be like, with wooden walls and chintzy, cozy chairs and, of course, the fireplace, resplendent and made of stone, roaring happily away while the Doctor was setting up marshmallows to roast, River pouring Amy and Rory glasses of wine.

"Christmas, then?" River asked Rory in an undertone, and Rory shrugged.

"Amy started setting up for Christmas, and then she gave him a bowtie, and then she started to tease him about it, and now he's taken it up with a fair bit of excitement."

River chuckled, and clinked her glass against Rory's. "The beginning of many traditions. I'd say more, but—"

"Spoilers, yes," Rory agreed, and they watched together as the Doctor and Amy were sorting the colored marshmallows, arguing over which ones tasted best.

River smiled, making her face look softer than her occasional murderous glares and terrifying efficiency, and she murmured, "He's always been a sentimental fool. I suppose he needed someone to push it into it this year."

"Yes, well," Rory said, "pushing's always been one of Amy's biggest talents."

River chuckled again. "Oh, yes, I know. The stories I could tell—but you'll live through them too, someday."

"What stories can you tell, then?" Rory asked, turning to face her, and River started talking about an outrageous night out when she was still in university that ended with the pair of them laughing uproariously, River holding her hand over her mouth as she giggled and Rory hiccuping his way through laughter.

Amy sat beside Rory on the couch, wrapping her arm around his shoulder and kissing him on the cheek, a light blush touching her cheeks, something warm and happy in her eyes that made Rory feel warm in return. "Well, what's so funny over here?"

"Oh, my university days," River said, with a sigh that still echoed of laughter, "much too inappropriate for the Doctor's ears, I'd think."

The Doctor's head snapped back around from where he was roasting a pink marshmallow. "What's too inappropriate for my ears?" He asked suspiciously.

"Don't you worry your pretty little head," River said soothingly, and asked, "So what do we have here?"

The Doctor surveyed her with narrowed eyes for a few more moments, but then River got up off the couch and sat down next to him, and he said, "Er—marshmallows. Oh! I nearly forgot—" He scrambled to his feet, away from River, and out of the room. River rolled his eyes.

"I forget how young he is now," she said, something a little sad in her eyes, and then plucked up a plain white marshmallows, spearing it on a skewer, and held it over the fire.

Rory took a sip of wine, snuggling into Amy's side, and Amy pressed her lips to his head. "Having fun?"

"Mmm," Rory murmured, feeling sleepy after all the food and the wine, and he felt Amy's smile against his hair. "Gonna watch  _It's a Wonderful Life_ again?"

"It's a fantastic movie," Rory grumbled, "I don't know how you fall asleep."

Amy paused, and said, "Would I be able to tempt you into  _How the Grinch Stole Christmas_ instead? It's Christmas Eve, after all."

River glanced back, and said, "Maybe  _A Christmas Story?_ "

"Ooh, we haven't watched that one yet," Amy said, grinning, "d'you think the Doctor'll oppose to giving a gun to a kid?"

"Oh, most certainly—doesn't mean we can't watch it, though."

The Doctor sped back in, holding a little red box in his hands, and thrust it into Amy's hands. "Merry Christmas," he declared, and snagged River's marshmallow off the skewer, shoving it into his mouth. River let out a mock-offended noise, smacking him on the thigh.

Amy had pulled her arm back away from Rory, carefully unwrapping the present (most people thought that Rory would be cautious with the paper and Amy would rip it off, but it was the opposite) and glanced at the little white box inside, before opening the box, and then pressing her lips together, staring.

"Amy?" Rory asked, sitting up, "Amy, what is it?"

Amy carefully pulled it out. It was a TARDIS Christmas ornament, dangling from a glimmering silver thread that was hanging off Amy's pinky, twirling lazily, light at the top phasing on and off, and Amy set it on the table purposefully before she threw herself at the Doctor, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. The Doctor let out a surprised "Oh!" and reciprocated, Amy whispering something that Rory couldn't hear and the Doctor saying a soft "you're welcome," and Amy withdrew, sniffling a little, and this time Rory was the one to wrap her arm around her shoulder, pressing a kiss to her head. 

"Okay?" He murmured, and she nodded, nearly knocking him in the chin.

The rest of the night proceeded with entirely too much wine, and each movie that had been recommended being watched; Rory was the last one awake for  _It's a Wonderful Life,_ curled up under an afghan with Amy as he watched through half-lidded eyes as they declared how angels got their wings, the Doctor vanished sometime around the Whos in Whoville gathered around the Christmas tree, and River snoozing in an armchair.

He closed his eyes, and smiled, and murmured decisively, "Merry Christmas, TARDIS."

There was a low mechanic hum, and he drifted off to sleep.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Holidays, everyone! Thank you so much for reading!


End file.
